Mid West 1st gen BS thread...

... I have noticed that our #s are dwindling the 3rd/2nd gens are taking over our area, some (at least in my area) giving our old trucks not much genuine notice for staying with it. A recent 4,000 mile journey (in two treks) around the MidWest I could find very few of the oldest 1st gens on the highways (probably as many as I can count to in Espanol),
there were a good number of 01-04s that I saw but still not too many of those either.

...

i visited the local salvage yard the other day where a fellow '97 model sat awaiting its grave, its production date was 03/97 (a month older than my truck.)

it was a unicorn of sorts, a '97 3.4 V6 single cab (the very last year you could get V6 in single cab!) so this truck was a super fast one in its newish days, it ended its existence with 239k miles. Engine compartment was full of oil, so maybe the engine blew up...

I would've liked a little tacoma like that (except for the color, it was white) back in 1997 but circumstances at the time I needed the xtraCab to store my out-of-town stuffs out of the elements and potential thieves or miscreants.

anyways, i am awaiting on the VIN search to see where all it had been registered in the past 22yrs to get a better idea of what looked to be the cause of its demise (i have never seen something like this in person before )

 

are there any midwest 1st gen labor day weekend shenanigans going on?

...
i got an autocheck line on that '97 single cab in the salvage lot, wish I could find out more info like if it was registered here since April 1997 and spent the winters in Chicago or Milwaukee, etc.
my preliminary thoughts are it was heavily offroaded in sand,dirt, etc that clogged the innards up and was never washed out thouroughly, so the water just sat inside frame
is this a possibility?

a few months back the Lincoln lot had a 95.5 single cab 2wd (front end collision) from a farm area outside of Lincoln whose frame was crusty but had NO perfs that my vigilant hammering could detect. it had half as many miles however, if that makes a difference?

 

gave my dinosaur truck a new top radiator hose this past week, it was the first 'minor' repair i have ever attempted myself unless you count an air filter as minor lol, (it just has not yet needed much in the name of repairs yet, just preventative maintenance, which is a good deal all around)
but i had to fix the hose solo when the local dealer quoted me $280 parts and labor to change it out, i had to draw the line!
it was not a hard job, just took awhile, a bit over 3 hours, including the time for the engine to cool down and scrape the pipe of a decade of buildup where it may have been leaking coolant from.
one of these days I am going to need a bunch of new suspension parts, i just know it

i also tried some new 'OEM' Tacoma floormats in a different color than my interior
unfortunately they will not be working out as planned because of how absolutely 'cheap' they were made somewhere
and nowhere near the 'quality' of my original. Perhaps the pieces of carpet can be patched in to make it smooth again, who knows




this is the new hose i recently commented on just a bit ago.
it was very overcast out so the lighting is sub par

 

almost finished cleaning up the interior from a trip to Wisconsin and the U.P. ... i was way the heck up there where US-41 ends

an observation I have had is that the 1st gen (or at least mine) is so MUCH easier to clean up than the 2nd gen interior, that is a total mess (or at least my relatives is that I offered to vacuum up and just had to stop because it seemed an endless struggle to clean up the carpet everything was sticking to it), not to mention that dash and instrument cluster and AT shifting console, yikes what a mess it is compared to my simple setup

 

Sounds like you need to clean a third gen now for comparison purposes

 

is your interior fairly easy to clean and vacuum up?
do you know what I mean with the 2nd gen carpet, console, dash, floormats even!

...
i can clean yours if that is what you are hinting at....
i am very detailed oriented!

 

Must not be a lot of bs in the mid west...

 

took a short drive to Lincoln today to check this truck out... 6995





https://www.carsforsale.com/vehicle/details/58554872

235k miles
and a custom bumper!

 

Hey everybody... I have been searching for a club here in KC. Anyone have any options or websites? I'm FB free

 

welcome to TW
what part of KC are you in?
it was supposed to snow today up north here, but did not, just got really cold after another rain shower yesterday
got some major flash rust going on under my truck because of it

 

I'm in northtown. But the 2003 can get anywhere stock turds can go. I bought mine in June, and it spent time in Cali and Arkansas, frame is in great shape. Hoping to keep it that way. How long have you been a member? Any clubs up here You know of? I'm into camping and fishing, would love to find a group

 

member for almost a year now, its been a riot
there is an active TW group in KC and Saint Louis on the sticky threads

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/kansas-city-tacoma-crew-816-913.518428/page-322

i have heard of a camping outing SW of St Louis towards the end of this month
@Cav_BluTRD has some deets (i think?)

 

how much is an original 97 spare worth

check it out here i guess
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-much-is-an-original-1997-spare-worth.633346/

the tireWet i applied to mine still is looking good even after the Sept wheeling trip to Wisconsin and the U.P.
got it all up in the treads too, looks brand new
the steel rim was crusty but it sand blasted and primered 0k for now
not sure if I should pick up an alloy wheel to match and get new rubber or not

 

this is pure BS, plain & simple
rotten Tacoma paint

 

this is where i recognized from the mall crawler page
any clue where your old truck has been since you let it go?

 

the halogen lamp sure makes this shine
there are remnants left of the rubber spray they put on before i left Bellevue NE and took it to St Louis area in May '97



it seemed to blast off rather well, this is before the afterblast zinc phosphate coating is applied

 

was at the local HF store this past week to pick up another 50 lb of glass bead blast media (on sale) to do some more frame modifications when the weather gets warmer, its kind of late in the year and winter is just around the corner. But sometimes November can be very balmy in spurts around here so i dunno what more i can get done until i need extended down time to remove stuff, the most challenging one maybe the fuel tank and put it back on properly

almost had this truck for 22 1/2 years now and finding some other rusty areas on body panels that are needing attention, behind mud flaps and under the rocker panel drains a couple chips were found
i am like, i thought i washed you fairly well under there all the time during the winter, why are you growing on me, i must kill you!!! die die die die

 

there are other good condition 1st gens out there in the mid west, they are just not on TW i guess!

this past week in Bellevue I saw a DC PreRunner colored in mystic gold metallic? that looked pretty decent

 

is anybody from the Chicago area?

i need to find a specialty place, i figure Chicago is a huge area so chances are better than they are locally to me